‘Insidious: Chapter 3′ Scheduled for a Spring 2015 Release

When director James Wan released his simple, low-budget haunted house horror movie Insidious in 2011, a lot of people sat up and paid attention. By the time Insidious: Chapter 2 was released, there was a keen audience waiting for it and the $5 million horror movie pulled in over $148 million at the box office.

The nightmare is not yet over, however, and Focus Features has now revealed that Insidious: Chapter 3 will arrive in theaters on April 3rd, 2015. Screenwriter Leigh Whannell will once again return to pen the script, and filming will likely begin in early 2014.

April generally isn’t a great month for movie releases in terms of box office success, falling too short of the summer boom, but this is probably a safe release date for Focus Features to go with. 2015 is set to be something of a crazy year for movie releases, with Star Wars Episode VII, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Batman vs. Superman, and Jurassic World just a few of the major sequels being released over the course of the year. Currently, the only direct competition for Insidious: Chapter 3 on that April weekend is sci-fi drama Passengers, starring Keanu Reeves and Rachel McAdams.

Although release dates are not immutable, the fact that Focus Features has a plan for when Insidious: Chapter 3 will come out suggests that the gears of pre-production are moving along quite nicely. Since Wan announced that The Conjuring and Insidious: Chapter 2 were to be his last forays into the horror genre (though he eventually walked that back on Twitter), it has been fairly clear that a new director will be assigned to Insidious: Chapter 3, but decidedly unclear who this successor might be.

One of the reasons that Wan’s films have been such a success is their very unique aesthetics and the often brilliant camera tricks used to create scary moments. The use of practical effects and make-up, along with the fact that Wan isn’t afraid to show his monsters in the daylight, have created a very recognizable signature among his current body of work in the horror genre. It’s hard to imagine a new director successfully mimicking this style, and such imitation probably wouldn’t even be desirable.

Here’s hoping that Insidious: Chapter 3 will bring something fresh to the franchise, rather than simply coming across as a cash-in sequel. Let us know in the comments if you think the series can survive without Wan, and who should take over directing duties for this threequel.